Art of Hosting YYC
NOTE: EARLY BIRD PRICING ENDS OCTOBER 14TH
A Call to Connection, Courage, and Collective Wisdom
Across Calgary and the Prairies today, many of us are experiencing a deep need for connection and rehumanization. We see burnout in people working to hold their organizations and communities together, and structures that no longer serve the complex reality we are navigating. We are challenged by division, isolation, and the difficulty of solving interconnected problems while feeling disconnected from one another.
The path forward runs through each other. It asks us to rebuild our capacity for genuine conversation, to make room for more voices at the table, and to trust that the intelligence we need is already in the room. If we create the conditions for it to surface.
It has been eight years since Calgary last hosted an Art of Hosting training. This gathering aims to be a living practice ground. A space to step away from the status quo, find the courage to explore meaningful conversations, invite more voices to lead, and identify practical steps forward.
By reweaving a living community of practice across Calgary, Treaty 7, and the region, we're building something that outlasts three days: a local network of hosts who can hold the conversations their communities, organizations, and teams need.
Our Calling Question
"How might we meet this moment with curiosity, trust, and collective wisdom?"
What is the Art of Hosting?
For over 25 years, the Art of Hosting (also known as the Art of Participatory Leadership) has provided simple, powerful frameworks to facilitate conversations that matter and turn dialogue into wiser collective action.
Art of Hosting is not a path. It won't tell you what to do or where to go. What it offers is something different: an architecture for creating the conditions where real thinking, real conversation, and real relationships can happen. You can apply it to a team meeting, a public consultation, a strategic planning process, or a community in crisis. The container can change but the principles don't.
This isn't a passive seminar or a glossy retreat, it's learning by doing. Over three days, we will experience, design, and practice core participatory methods used worldwide, including Circle, World Café, Open Space Technology, and Appreciative Inquiry.
Together, we'll explore how to:
Craft powerful questions that invite genuine inquiry rather than canned answers
Activate collective intelligence in teams, organizations, and community groups
Work creatively with tension, conflict, and uncertainty without rushing to artificial consensus
Design participatory processes that move groups from dialogue toward real experimentation and action
Tend to your own presence as a host so you can stay grounded when the room gets difficult
Why Now? (And Why Calgary?)
Past Calgary gatherings in 2012, 2016, and 2018 seeded relationships that many still rely on today. But the world has shifted considerably since then: the complexity is deeper, the divisions more visible, and the need for skilled hosts of hard conversations more urgent than ever.
This 2026 training is designed to re-ignite that local field at exactly the moment it's needed most. We are intentionally designing a room anchored in the Prairie region, bringing together voices from public service, grassroots organizing, corporate leadership, nonprofits, and Indigenous communities. Real change emerges when people who see the world differently choose to stay in the room together.
What You’ll Leave With
Practical Facilitation Tools: Methods you can immediately apply in your next team meeting, board retreat, or public consultation.
Navigational Skills for Complexity: A working understanding of how groups move through chaos and the "messy middle" without getting stuck.
A Network in Your Corner: Lasting relationships with fellow facilitators, leaders, and practice partners across Calgary and the Prairies.
Renewed Energy & Steadiness: Greater confidence in your ability to hold space when you don't have all the answers.
Who Should Attend?
This gathering is for anyone who brings people together around things that matter—no formal facilitation experience required. You just need curiosity and a willingness to sit in a circle without already knowing the answer.
We welcome:
Non-profit & Community Leaders
Government & Public Sector Workers
Consultants, Facilitators, & Emerging Practitioners
Equity, Social Justice, & Environmental Advocates
Private Sector Leaders & B Corp Team Members
Indigenous Leaders & Community Organizers
Calgary AoH Alumni (2012–2018): Come reconnect, deepen your practice, and help welcome the next cohort!
Note: We are intentionally reserving at least two-thirds of the room for participants rooted in the Prairie region to ensure the conversations remain grounded in local conditions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is price a barrier, or can I not pay the full amount right now?
We offer tiered pricing so you can pay what fits your budget. Higher tier tickets directly subsidize lower tier tickets to keep the room accessible. If cost remains a barrier, please reach out to us directly to discuss options.
Do I need prior facilitation experience?
Not at all. Whether you are completely new to hosting or a seasoned facilitator returning from a past Calgary training, the design meets you where you are.
What is included in the ticket price?
Tuition, training materials, light snacks/refreshments, and lunch each day are included. Accommodation and dinners are not included.
Is the venue accessible?
Yes. The Calgary Rowing/Canoe Club was chosen deliberately as a welcoming, accessible local venue embedded in the community rather than an isolated retreat site.
Who is hosting this event?
An experienced hosting team of local and regional Art of Hosting practitioners—including familiar faces from past Calgary gatherings—will lead the three days. (Full host bios will be announced shortly.)
Ready to help build Calgary's next community of practice?
Select your ticket tier below to join us in November.
Your Hosting Team:
Leslie Allen is a conversation host and circle keeper who believes that, at the heart of everything, we all want to matter. Mattering is the quiet knowing that if we didn't show up, we would be missed, and that our presence contributes to the greater good. Guided by connection, courage and compassion, Leslie works with people to create spaces in their families, communities, friendships and workplaces where they feel safe, heard and acknowledged, and together co-create connection, solve problems and rise. A trained Art of Hosting practitioner who has facilitated a community of practice using its approach and weaves its methods through her work as a certified coach and mediator. Leslie lives in Calgary and is the mother of three adult children who have left the nest and are flying on their own paths as artists.
Amanda Hachey (she/her/elle) is a facilitator, systems convener, and a forest therapy guide. She has been steeping in the practices of Art of Hosting since 2010 and she is known for her innovative approach to hosting meaningful conversations within diverse stakeholder groups to connect people and increase the chances of those "Aha!" moments that make change happen. In her many roles she helps multi-stakeholder groups tackle complex social problems by holding space for people to listen to and learn from each other, to see the whole system, and to take action in ambiguity by leveraging an experimental approach. Amanda plays, loves, and laughs from her Moncton home with her son Rio, partner Aaron and dog Fern. She has a passion for everything bikes, gardens, and being in the woods!
Sophia Horwitz (she/her) (thecolab.ca) is a facilitator, leadership coach, and systems thinker. For more than 20 years, she has supported people and teams to navigate change with steadiness and imagination, including through civic innovation, public engagement, and leadership development. She brings care, clarity, and creativity to her work, and designs participatory spaces where people can reflect, experiment, and build capacity together, especially in times that ask for both courage and discernment. Sophia is a long-time practitioner of the Art of Hosting and is committed to stewarding participatory leadership as a daily practice. She believes meaningful change is shaped through the ways we gather, listen, and relate. When she’s not hosting conversations, Sophia loves chasing her kids through streams, revelling in the forest, and swimming in Nova Scotia’s lakes.
Rob Sinclair (he/him) (consciousbrands.com) is a conversation host, harvester, and governance practitioner who helps purpose-driven businesses grow in real relationship with the people and places they touch. As founder of Conscious Brands®, he works alongside B Corps, purpose driven companies, and the consultants who support them, helping them with certification, governance design, and the bigger question of what it means for business to be a force for good. The name comes from the roots of the word conscious: to know together, and that idea runs through everything he does. Rob has been part of the Art of Hosting community in Calgary since 2012, and he's helping call this gathering back to life after eight years. In a room, he's known for holding space, harvesting what matters and mining for metaphors. He listens for the many voices and tensions in a group, then weaves them into something people can actually carry home and use. He believes the workplace is one of the best places to practise participatory leadership, because it's where so many of us spend our days. When he's not hosting, Rob is out bike packing, working on his VW Van, building with reclaimed materials and scheming with his family about next adventures in nature.
Location
Calgary Rowing/Canoe Club, T3E 6B5